Mika Rottenberg Interview: Girl Power From Another Century
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Meet the truly original artist Mika Rottenberg! In this video she shares the fascinating story behind her equally mesmerizing take on Orwell's 'Animal Farm' - a work in which a group of women with extremely long hair turn things around - and take fate into their own hands.
The video-installation ‘Cheese’ (2008) pays tribute to the American long-haired Sutherland sisters from the late 1800s, who grew their hair long and marketed a new shampoo, a so-called ‘hair fertilizer’. This marketing-scheme ultimately made them millionaires and enabled them to hire “surrogate-sisters,” who could do their work for them - “the first American supermodels,” the artist calls them. She came across the story of ‘The Seven Sutherland Sisters’ when searching for people with long hair online, which is typical of how she likes to use people, who have something exceptional about them.
At the same time, Rottenberg stumbled upon a contemporary club for people with very long hair. When she contacted one of them, she was invited to their annual hair-convention in Florida. This sparked her desire to make a video inspired by the story of the Sutherland sisters, and she ended up building a location on the farm she stayed at for almost a year. The long-haired women were hired for a week to stay, although the collaboration didn’t go as smoothly as the artist had imagined: “They needed to wash their hair, and it took 24 hours for the hair to dry, and I had five days to shoot, so they couldn’t take 24 hours. So we made meetings and agreements - their long-hair-union and me - and they could wash their hair in turns, and somehow it worked out.”
“It was a very strong experience, because we were all the same space for a week.” The set for the cheese farm soon became more than just a set, as they used it as a real farm, where they worked with goats and grew things. Mistakes and random movement were also built into the architecture of the set, reflecting the things happening on the farm, like when a goat escapes. Moreover, though Rottenberg was inspired by George Orwell’s novella ‘Animal Farm’ from 1945, she is reluctant to call the video directly political: “There is this shift in power… from milking the animals they milk themselves.”
Mika Rottenberg is a video artist born in 1976 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, and now based in New York City. She is best known for her video and installation work that often deals with the subject of female labour. Working in video, installation and sculpture, her video works often feature women with unconventional bodies, who perform physical acts that reflect the human condition in post-modern times. Solo exhibitions of Rottenberg’s work have been shown at prominent venues such as P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York (2005), and her work has been included in major exhibitions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Havana Biennale (2000), the Moscow Biennale (2007) and the Whitney Biennial (2008). Rottenberg is also the recipient of numerous awards including The Cartier Award at the Frieze Art Fair in 2006.
Mika Rottenberg is a video artist born in 1976 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, and now based in New York City. She is best known for her video and installation work that often deals with the subject of female labour. Her work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, London, and in the Whitney Biennale, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art, New York. Solo exhibitions of Rottenberg’s work have been shown at prominent venues such as MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. Rottenberg is also the recipient of numerous awards including The Cartier Award at the Frieze Art Fair in 2006.
Mika Rottenberg was interviewed by Christian Lund at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen in November 2016. In the interview, Rottenberg discusses and shows her video-installation ‘Cheese’ (2008).
Camera: Klaus Elmer
Edited by: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Produced by: Christian Lund
Cover photo: ‘Cheese’ (2008) by Mika Rottenberg
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2017
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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These women look like angels! Amazingly beautiful, all of them.
I was aware of this video! Thank you for sharing the preview. So I am interested in watching the full video. How can I do that? Please let me know. Thank you in advance.
My mom started losing hair when she was 12 because of stress so she was too afraid to cut it. She had hair down to her ankles and didn't cut it off until she was about 35.
Omg why she cut it??!
They lived just down the road from me here in Niagara County NY.
I wonder how do they get their hair to be so long and beautiful!
hide the scissors and genes
They don't cut it and good genes
They don’t cut or color it.
@@jrpacer6355 by wearing hair extensions
I wanna watch the full film so much. If anyone has a link i beg you share it
Plz tell me real secret to grow hair plz mam
My hair is very long.....and I can tell you that the water in NY is the best in the world.......from the Croton aquifers....I wash my hair in distilled water ONLY.....no crap from the tap...................grow it long! I love love love mine! no heat either....ever. Be patient you will get there....a good diet too.
What is the secretes plz let me know
You sound like a magnificent woman. God bless. Hope you continue to enjoy your wonderful long hair!!!
Beautiful blonde hair💗💗💗💗💗
I wonder how many, if any, have retained their glorious locks..... I hope all of them!
я приношу смиренное поклонение лучшим из творения божьих!
I have long hair but not that long mine is mid back length they have beautiful hair but it be so much hard work to care for if
Wow i thought my hair is long at 30inches beautiful💜
what is the oil name and how I buy that oil
nisha nisha Vitamin E and Argan Oil💖
Mika compliments for film, please a name of this long hair women, grazie, Maurizio from Italy.
I’d love to see this movie some parts look funny when their chasing the animals round that maze thing they built do you have a link to watch it
The brunette girl has my favourite hair from all of them but all the ladies have gorgeous manes.
Ligeia, your own hair is more beautiful than any of these ladies. I have watched your videos and it is absolutely gorgeous.
0secure 1 I am humbled. Thank you.
I thank you too, especially for those lovely videos. Your hair is so long, beautiful and thick. I am occasionally distracted by your clock's tail, lol.
Felix the cat!
>^..^
This could be a great horror movie.
Yeah they strangle people with their hair
Horror? More like a beautiful, ethereal fairytale filled with sensuality.
😂
Who were all the actors, Mika?
ممكن احد يترجملي ايش اتقول بالمقطع هدا وجزاكم الله خير
كاني ما حدا فهمان شو عبتحكي المخلوقة
Wow what a beautiful longhaired ladies
💜
The name of oil pleaze plz plz
Chaima Ziani Vitamin E and Argan Oil💖
Most beautiful long hair
No offense meant, but the woman's narration and voice in telling the story made it boring. I had to fast forward every 2 or so minutes, and I kept saying get on with it!
wow very nice
you should have your hair on there sanna
suggsy1960 I'd live to see new videos from Sanna.
Is your hair for sale I am still waiting for floor length women shaven bald at del amo mall
Creep. Loser.
You are truly a wretched dude, no doubt alone!
I 'm curious to see Mika with longer hair.
Mika who?
Super
Traduza para o português. Please!
Flor concordo
É mesmo
Wow
Oil neme
Is your hair is for sale by Mongolia grill and del amo mall floor length hair how much for your hair is still waiting
I like to come your country friends
13:20
Brand off-liqht
I was kinda hoping this would be about hair, not architecture, goats, and set-building 🥱😴💤💤💤
Hair extensions